Barbour details presidential decision

Haley Barbour, the former Mississippi governor, says he ultimately decided not to run for president because he “wasn't ready to be all in” for the grueling process, but was not dissuaded by anything his advisers learned from researching his past.

“There was nothing not already well-known or that we had not seen in the counter-oppo research for my 2007 reelection,” Barbour said.

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“[Strategist] Scott Reed and I ... agreed there was nothing in the material to cause me not to go forward. So we went forward to see if we could put together the money and a winning team, and to see if I had the fire in the belly to dedicate 10- years of my life, to the exclusion of all else, to running for and being president. I decided after four months of building a team, etc., that I wasn't ready to be all in, so I shouldn't be in at all.”

The former governor was referring to an opposition-research report on Barbour that was commissioned by his political team – a standard practice by prospective candidates. Barbour objected to the conclusion some readers drew after reading a POLITICO e-book on the campaign, 'The Right Fight Backs,' that the oppo report he conducted on himself was decisive in his choice not to run for president in 2012. He said the finding came to him in three or four binders on Dec. 20, and he did not announce until April 25 that he would not run.

“For the next four months, I campaigned,” he said. “We got commitments for several million dollars of contributions. We set up an organization in Florida that was, I think, the best Republican organization in Florida. Similarly, in South Carolina: We had the best leadership in South Carolina. I did all of that because the counter-oppo didn't bother me a bit. … I went all over the country, put together organizations, made speeches.”

Barbour said the report covered his whole life story: clips from high school and college, plus coverage of his law practice, his lobbying, his tenure as chairman of the Republican National Committee, and his seven years as governor, including all his statements about taxes.

“Everything in there was stuff that we knew about or had dealt with or had prepared for,” Barbour said. “The reason you do this is so you'll be prepared when somebody attacks you.”